Tangledthread 2014 challenge

Having failed in 2013, I'm tossing my hat into the ring for 2014 with the hopes of getting a bit more accomplished.

Reading list to come....

And here it is:

January:
1. The Yarn Whisperer by Clara Parkes, nonfiction
2. Consequences by Penelope Lively, fiction, ebook.
3. The Dinner by Herman Koch, fiction
4. Textiles: The Whole Story: Uses, Meanings, Significance by Beverly Gordon, nonfiction
5. Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith, fiction
6. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell, nonfiction, audiobook.

February
7. Ideas in Weaving by Ann Sutton & Diane Sheehan, nonfiction
8. The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro, fiction, ebook
9. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, nonfiction, audiobook
10. The Bells by Richard Harvell, fiction
11. The Coat Route by Meg Lukans Noonan, nonfiction, ebook

March
12. Hild by Nicola Griffith, historical fiction, ebook
13. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
14. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, fiction, audiobook
15. Death of a Charming Man by M. C. Beaton, fiction, audiobook

April
13. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, fiction, ebook
14. Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir by Penelope Lively, nonfiction (memoir)
15. Mary Coin by Marissa Silver, fiction, ebook
16. The Faster I Walk the Smaller I am by Kjersti A. Scomsvold, fiction
17. The Practical Spinner's Guide - Cotton, Flax, Hemp (Practical Spinner's Guides) by Stephenie Gaustad, nonfiction, ebook

May
18: One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson, fiction, audiobook.
19. Still Life With Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlen, audiobook.
20. Cold Wind by C.J. Box, fiction, audiobook.
21. Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo, fiction, ebook.
22. Death of a Kingfisher by M.C. Beaton, fiction, audiobook.
23. The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan, fiction, ebook

June
24. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wicker, fiction, audiobook
25. Back of Beyond by C.J. Box, fiction, audiobook.
26. Into No Man's Land by Irene Miller, nonfiction, ebook
27. In the Light of What We Know by Zia Hader Rahman, fiction
28. The Weaver's Weevil by Rebecca Fox, nonfiction.
29. Woven Textile Design by Jan Shenton, nonfiction.
30. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett, memior-nonfiction, audiobook
31. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman, fiction, graphic novella
32. Proof: the Science of Booze by Adam Rogers, nonfiction*

July
33. Looming Murder by Carol Ann Martin, fiction, e-book
34. Tapestry of Lies by Carol Ann Martin, fiction, e-book
35. The Preacher: a Novel by Camilla Lackberg, fiction, audiobook
36. Death of a Policeman by M. C. Beaton, fiction, audiobook
37. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, fiction.

August
38. Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman, nonfition, audiobook and paper book.
39. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, nonfiction, ebook/audiobook/paperback*
40. Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth, nonfiction-memoir, audiobook.
41. Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth, nonfiction-memoir, ebook/audiobook
42. Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth, nonfiction-memoir, ebook/audiobook
43. History of the Rain by Niall Williams, fiction.
44. Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears by Pema Chodrin, nonfiction, ebook*

September
45. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, fiction.
46. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevrin, fiction, ebook
47. The Bat by Jo Nesbo, fiction, audiobook

October
48. A 1000~Mile Walk on the Beach by Loreen Niewenhuis, nonfiction
49. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe, nonfiction
50. The Spinner's Book of Fleece by Beth Smith, nonfiction
51. The Hidden Child by Camilla Lackberg, fiction, audiobook
52. The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell, fiction
53. The Stranger by Camilla Lackberg, fiction, audiobook
54. Someone by Alice McDermott, fiction

November

55. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, historical fiction
56. Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh, fiction, audiobook
57. On Immunity: an Inoculation by Eula Biss, nonfiction
58. Moonlight on Linoleum by Terry Helwig, nonfiction (memoir)
59. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penney, fiction, audiobook*

December
60. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, fiction, audiobook
61. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny, fiction, audiobook*
62. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, fiction, ebook*
63. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philip Sendkar
64. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, nonfiction, ebook

Welcome back!

Okay...just finished the first book for 2014:

Adventures in Yarn Farming by Barbara Parry.

Review: Adventures in Yarn Farming is about a couple whose second "career" became raising sheep and processing their wool into yarn. After an introduction to their location in Massachusetts and how they came to this adventure, the narrative travels through the seasons which dictate the activities on the farm. Interspersed through the book are patterns and directions for projects that use the raw materials sold by the farm.

As a weaver, knitter, and spinner I enjoyed the book even though I never intend to take up animal husbandry. The author's target audience is people with interests similar to mine.

Sounds like an interesting book to start your year.

Nice review of Adventures in Yarn Farming, tangledthread. Happy New Year to you!

Hi tangled, one of my first books for the year was about a sheep! Looking forward to following you again.

Wow!! Hi Lori, Daryl, and Kerry!! Three comments is a record for me.
Thanks for the kind words about my (very cursory) first review of the year.

There are a couple things I need to do at the start of this new year.

First, I need to go back through my 2013 challenge list and sort out the "data"....I kept track of fiction, nonfiction, print, ebook, and audiobooks because I wanted to see how they distributed across my reading for the year and through the year.

Second, I need to make a reading list for this year. For the first part of the year I want to read only from the stacks of books accumulated here. I plan to try not to be distracted by new or trending titles. I don't think I'll make the 75 challenge on those stacks.....but you never know. I haven't taken stock yet.

Currently reading Mary Coin by Marissa Silver, The Bells by Richard Harvell, and The Yarn Whisperer by Clara Parkes.....all print books.

Am currently listening to Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny, and have queued up Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the art of Battling Giants to listen to as the next audiobook. I listen to books as I weave, sew, or otherwise putter around the house.

Sounds like you have some winners lined up!

Okay that list of books I wrote on Jan. 2? Scratch that. Life has changed. My oldest brother died after a long struggle with COPD on that day.

So I have made no progress on The Yarn Whisperer, am bored to tears with Beautiful Mystery and have started reading Consequences by Penelope Lively. Malcolm Gladwell has not made it out of the gate yet.

Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss.

I hate that A Beautiful Mystery is not working for you. I really loved that one. I hope you get out of your book funk soon. I am sure that once things return somewhat to normal after the loss of your brother that you'll enjoy reading again.

I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. You're in my thoughts.

>10 drneutron:, 11, 12...thanks Jim, Lori, and Amber for your kind words. Funny how life events make you jump tracks from one way of approaching the world to another.

Lori....I've struggled with Louise Penney books...I'm not sure why. I generally love British mysteries, which is the style she tends to follow, but there's something in her approach that makes me impatient for the story to get moving.

Am enjoying Lively's Consequences and Beverly Gordon's Textiles: The Whole Story: Uses, Meanings, Significance

We listened to Malcolm Gladwell's newest book while on a trip to frigid northern Michigan. Quick review:

Once again, Malcolm Gladwell takes a look at conventional thinking and turns it upside down. In this title he uses a variety of case studies to support the theory that what we commonly see as positions of advantage are not always so. And that positions of disadvantage may actually be a strength.
It's interesting to me that he uses quite a few references from the Bible, both Old and New Testament as introductions to a concept, which is a follow through of the biblical story used in the title.

He starts with battling giants as the title suggests, and points out the disadvantages of being large, slow, and myopic as the figure Goliath was purported to be by some sources. And analyzes the advantages of David, a young shepherd boy with no armor or experience in warfare, yet had the advantages of speed, skill, and maneuverability. These two tropes set the stage for the series of topics and case studies that he uses to support his point.

He touches on various topics such as choice of college, guerilla warfare, the 1960's Civil Rights movement, classroom size, California's Three Strike Rule, successful dyslexics, and children who've lost a parent at a young age.

This is not a book on empirical research in social science, but it is typical Malcolm Gladwell who challenges his readers to check their assumptions and prejudices at the opening of the book and look at the world in a more expansive way.

We listened to this as an audiobook, read by the author. He does a superb job of orally presenting his work. It was like sitting through a fascinating lecture.

Finished Penelope Lively's Consequences this afternoon and wrote a review which can be found on the book page.

Also wrote a brief review of Beverly Gordon's Textiles: the Whole Story

Nice review of Consequences; I'll keep an eye out for it.

Review of Herman Koch's The Dinner:

This slim novel is an account of four people sharing dinner at an upscale restaurant narrated by Paul, one of the people at the table. As the narration progresses, Paul slowly reveals bit by bit the relationship between the people at the table, and his view of the nature of these people and their relationships. As Paul describes them, no one in the book is very likeable.

The author's writing is very tight. The reliability of the narrator is questionable. And the storyline is very dark. There is a political element to the novel, in that one of the characters is a prominent Dutch politician and elements of a political/social nature are touched upon including: the homeless, education, mental illness, and the unemployed.

The plot line is chilling, particularly in Paul's obsession and interpretation of a "happy family". I hesitate to say that I "liked" the book. It would be more accurate to say that I appreciate the author's skill in writing and construction of the novel. Revealing more would spoil the story for those who have not read it.

Review The View from Castle Rock
In this collection of stories, Alice Munro explores the history of her Scottish immigrant ancestors, imagining the events in Scotland that led to their emigration to Canada. Once settled in the bush of western Ontario, the stories evolve through the mid nineteenth century to the late 20th century. The last two thirds of the book are memoir-like, exploring the author's own life and experiences.

This is not truly memoir because there is much that the author invents and imagines. I particularly enjoyed it because I have also reached the age where I speculate on my own ancestors and how they might have been. And I am familiar with the landscape of the Lake Huron shores of Ontario.

The writing is quintessential Munro. The work is driven by characters rather than plot. The sequential stories are strung together by characters that appear at different times in their lives, revealing how those people develop over time. I've often thought that Alice Munro was ahead of her time in that her style of writing appeals to the modern desire for short episodic narratives that has evolved in the era of digital media.

Finished Dancing Fish and Ammonites by Penelope Lively

Review:
Although the subtitle of the book is "a memoir", this is not your typical memoir. But neither are her other memoir type books: Oleander, Jacaranda: a Childhood Perceived and A House Unlocked.

Dancing Fish and Ammonites is written as a report from another place and time...those being the author as she enters her ninth decade while living in 21st century London. Penelope Lively spent her chidlhood in Egypt in a expatriate family and studied history at university. Much of her writing is influenced by these facts. She is interested in history with a strong awareness of how memory plays into what actually becomes history. And her childhood experience as an expat. relocated "home" to England ... a place entirely unfamiliar to her inspires her to include a lot of observations of cultural behavior in her writing. These threads continue in this "not quite memoir", as she describes it in her preface.

The book is divided into five main sections. The first deals with old age and its changing definition in the early 21st century as the WWII baby boomers come of age.

Life and Times, the second section, deals with the sweeping cultural changes that she has seen in her lifetime. Changing class distinction in Great Britain, women's struggle for equality in employment, the introduction of reliable birth control, and changing attitudes toward homosexuals are some of the observations touched upon. Mixed in all that is a little bit of political history including some of the Africa Campaign of WWII and the Suez Canal Crisis of the mid 1950's.

The third section deals with the many aspects of memory. Procedural, semantic memory, recollection....so very many ways the brain provides with a sense of past and place. It is a view of memory from a person with enough years to have quite a lot of memories and the intelligence to know that much of human memory is suspect. And despite the unreliability of memory it is essential to one's identity.

Reading and writing comprise the fourth section and provides the reader with some insights into how her reading has prompted much of her writing. One could also come away with a pretty good reading list from this section.

And finally, she closes with a treatise on six objects in her home. These objects, through history and memory, provide quite a lot of information about their owner. It is a writing device use in her book, A House Unlocked, about her grandmother's home...but now applied to her own home.

I am a fan of Penelope Lively's fiction and after reading Dancing Fish and Ammonites, I think I've come to understand more of her approach to those fictional subjects in The Photograph, Consequences, Moon Tiger, and Passin On.

Review of Secret Daughter
Secret Daughter is the story of an American woman (Somer), her Indian husband (Krishnan..or Kris), their adopted Indian daughter (Asha) and her birth parents (Kavita and Janu).

The story is told from multiple perspectives which highlights their individual differences as well as cultural differences. Through the story the author explores various aspects of intercultural marriage, international adoption, and the cultural and emotional strains therein.

The story is well told, the writing is clear. Some parts of the storyline are predictable, especially if you've read the writing of other Indian/North American writers. At the end of the story all of the ends are tied up neatly, which I can't decide if that's to the credit of the author or not.

I gave it 4 stars

Just got back from a trip up north where we consumed 3 different crime stories: Cold Wind, Cockroaches, and Death of a Kingfisher....I just posted reviews of the first two on their book pages. Also reviewed Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen and One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson.

So I'm currently caught up on reviews.

Currently reading The Engagements and Me Before You

Finished Irene Miller's Into No Man's Land which is memoir about her childhood experience of escaping the Nazi's from Poland by going with her family into Russia (Siberia) then to Uzbekistan.

It was an interesting account, engagingly written. It's a shame this book isn't more widely available. I downloaded it as an ebook.

Just finished listening too The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wicker.
I gave it 3.5 stars but found I didn't care enough to write a thorough review. Instead I would concur almost entirely with the review written by S. Turlingon here: https://www.librarything.com/work/13181202/reviews/108910151

I liked the book well enough and found that the atmosphere of the story reminded me of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

I just finished reading to weaving books last evening.

The first one The Weaver's Weevil is pretty much a recipe book to help handweavers use up the cones and cones of cotton that seem to multiply in the cupboard once one is bitten by the weaving bug. There is a section that reviews basic color theory with some tips that are specific to the woven interlacement of threads and some design games to help spur creative thinking. Sandwiched between those are the weaving instructions for a variety of kitchen towels.

The second book Woven Textile Design by Jan Shenton is an entirely different sort of book. It appears to be written for use with students of textile design. The basic information on weaving is rudimentary and assumes some knowledge of a textile studion. The design information is a treasure trove, especially for those like myself who have been immersed in weaving drafts and fabric structure for a long time. She leads the reader through design inspiration and imagining the desired fabric then provides the tools to experiment with materials, fabric structure, and color to produce the desired result. I can't wait to try some of her ideas at the loom.

Both books were published within the past few months and would be good additions to any handweaver's library.

Finished Ann Patchett's This is the Story of a Happy Marriage last night as an audiobook, narrated by the author.

This is a collection of essays written over the past decade or so and published elsewhere. Most of them are memoir material, having to do with growing up as a child of divorce, attending Catholic schools, the perils of MFA programs, dogs (one in particular, Rose), divorce & marriage, and the founding of Parnassus books. Much of the first part of the book is of interest to aspiring writers.

Having read several of her novels, I was interested in hearing more about how the author thinks, reads, and approaches writing. I was not disappointed. I gave it 4 stars.

Finished Camille Lackberg's The Preacher: a novel last night. I've really enjoyed her Patrick Hedstrom mysteries.

For the month of August, I have set out to read Barbara Tuchman's two books about WWI which began 100 years ago....
Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War. 1890 - 1914 and The Guns of August.

So far I am at Chapter 2 of Proud Tower which introduces the anarchist movement....so eerily similar to the terrorist movement of today.

Review of Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

In this book, Jennifer Haigh does for southwestern Pa. coal country what Richard Russo did for upstate N.Y./ New England mill towns in his book Empire Falls.

Located in Bakerton, Pa. (aka West Carroll) during the 50's & 60's, the author does a very authentic job of capturing those small towns in that time period. It's an area I'm familiar with. The story of the Novak family could be one of many families in that place and time. Men go underground in the mine or off to war while the women are left to sustain themselves and their families. The family members struggle to adapt to changing economic realities as jobs disappear and education assumes greater importance.

There are a couple technical glitches. For example she sites a young man with a transistor radio in Washington, D.C. the week of the D-Day invasion in 1944. Transistors weren't developed until 1947 and weren't commercially available in radios until the mid 1950's. And there is mention of an eye procedure that starts out as radiation treatment in the 1950's (believable) which somehow flips to a laser treatment (not possible for that time period) in the story. But I attribute those glitches to a poor editor and give high marks to the author for giving us a great family saga.

I give it 3.5 stars.

Review of Moonlight on Linoleum by Terry Helwig:

This is a memoir that I picked up after reading Sue Monk Kid's The Invention of Wings, which I also recommend. The two authors are friends and Kidd encouraged Helwig to put her story in writing.

It is a memoir about growing up as the oldest daughter of a young, unstable mother. The story is reminiscent of Jeanette Walls' memoir, The Glass Castle, but is much more believable because the writing is less fantastic. At the same time, Helwig uses language and metaphor to communicate the depth and breadth of feelings she experienced at the hand of a mother she loved but could not trust.

I won't go into the details of her story, but it is a story worth reading. And as I reflect on some of the children that moved in and out of my elementary schools in small town in the '60's, I suspect that aspects of her story are more common than many of us would like to believe.

I give it 4 stars.

Review of Immunity: an Inoculation by Eula Biss

In this brief and beautifully written book Eula Biss explores the meaning and significance of the concepts of inoculation and immunity in the individual and society. Each chapter is written as an essay on various aspects of the topic. It is not presented as technical/scientific information, though there is no paucity of facts in the text. Ten pages of sources and citations at the back of the book are interesting reading by themselves.

Through facts, myths, and metaphor the author points out the importance of a larger understanding of important concepts. She explores how we integrate information into our systems of thought, hence the subtitle: "an inoculation". The result is an attempt to inoculate the reader against quick assumptions based on poorly researched facts and an awareness of the impact of metaphorical language on our impressions, opinions, and ultimately our world view.

One of my favorite quotes in the book is on p. 128 citing George Orwell's observation that thought can corrupt language and language can corrupt thought:
"Stale metaphors reproduce stale thinking. Mixed metaphors confuse. And metaphors flow in two directions - thinking about one thing in terms of another can illuminate or obscure both. If our sense of bodily vulnerability can pollute our politics, then our sense of political powerlessness must inform how we treat our bodies."

Through this book, Ms. Biss effectively demonstrates the value of the study of humanities in a world that is currently dominated by technology and sound bites. Kudos to her.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

so here we are, the last day of the year. I just finished The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and am still working on All the Light We Cannot See which leaves me 11 books shy of 75 books for the year.

Later today I will do a breakdown of how many physical books, audio books, and ebooks were in the list.